Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1887-11-19
GOSSIP ABOUT Villas.
EOW THE HEAD OF ALL OUR POST
. MASTERS LIVES AND WORKS.
His business Abilities and His Fortune
in GoEcbic Iron-Vilas as IL Lawyer.
His Home LiFc-iminent Public Men
Who Have ISCconc Insane.
Especial Correspondence

WASHINGTON Nov 81 understand
that Postmaster General Villas has made
Il fortune out Of the GOGcbiC iron region.
lie owns LARGE amount of land in the
very best part of it, and he bought this
some time before the finds of iron were
made.
Gen. Villas is one of the money making
statesmen Of this country. He has as
natural gift for the accumulation of the
almighty dollar as has John Sherman, and
his friends say that had he devoted him
self to business instead of law he would
already be many times millionaire. He
comes by his money making faculty hon
estly. His patcrnal grandfather, Moses
Villas, owned an SEQ acre farm in Yer
mont and left fortune when lie died,
and his maternal grandfather, Nathan
Smiley, was the Ben Franklin of his sec
ton. He was sharp, shrewd and full of
wise sayings, and the democrats ran him
so often for governor of Vermont that,
! though he was never elected, he came to
| be known ts Governor Smiley. He made
fortune out of his sagacity, and Villas
father was in good circumstances when he
went to Wisconsin.
William L. Villas himself received
something of n start from his father, and
his natural ability allied to his Yankee
| tendencies have taught him to invest the
big fees he has made. He has for years
| been one of the best lawyers Of the north
west. and for some time has devoted him
! self largely to railroad and corporation
| law. He got q big thing out of Tie North
western railroad, whose business he did
for some time before he became postmas-
ter general, and he can make great deal
more outside OF the presidents cabinet
than in it.
lie has had rather Il remarkable career,
and he entered college at 13 At IA he
learned to set type for amusement, and
by The time he was 90 he was graduated,
had studied law and had won his first
| case before the supreme court Of Niscon-
sin. The lawyers Of his section tell me
that he is n man Of extraordinary legal
ability, and they say that he has Il re
markNble power Of EraSpiag any subject
which he takes up both in its entirety and
its various parts. lie has lectured for
twenty years before the law school of
Madison university, and his training there
! has c!alilel his methods of thinking and
| has given him remarkable facility i'll OK
preston and condensation. lie knows
how to take the meat out of subject as
well perhaps ~ any man in Washington,
and his mastery of the details of the post
! office department is said to bo remark
able. He knows more about the working
|
and he seems to have Erasped his depart
ment both rs 4 whole and in its various
parts.
His law has helped him largely in bis
department work, and am told that he is
rs strong in his ONCE as a business lawyer
rs lie is before u jury. His best speeches
have been made as ga advocate, and his
| good memory stands him in good stead al
Che law. lie is so thorough that he re
members any case he has ever studied
and in the law, Is in the department, h
seems to learn analytically, so that his re
mcmDr&nco OF case takes in not only it
general bearing bat its details.
A. n business lawyer he has none OF tn
slip shcd ways which so often prevail i
the profession. lie keeps perfect set Q
books both in his law and III other things
ana in the heat of his practice he ofte
spent hours over his ledger and day book
seeing that every item was set down an
making the whole look Ike copperplatl
IL writes the finest hanl of any man
The cabinet and lie Is fond Of the law as
! study lie made a coiifcation, thina